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Lightspark 0.4.4.2 Brings Plug-in Based Audio

Phoronix: Lightspark 0.4.4.2 Brings Plug-in Based Audio

Just two weeks ago was a new Lightspark release that brought a variety of interesting changes to this open-source project that's implementing the Adobe Flash/SWF specification. At that point we also learned from its lead developer that Lightspark 0.4.5 would bring support for multiple audio back-ends via plug-ins and a more powerful graphics architecture. Lightspark 0.4.4.2 has been released this weekend and while it's not 0.4.5 and does not introduce this new graphics architecture, it does have the new audio plug-in framework...

I think the only thing separating lightspark from widespread adoption in linux distros is the support for a plugin-based media framework like gstreamer. Directly linking to ffmpeg is in fact an obstacle due to its murky software patent situation. With gstreamer, or any other plugin framework, distros could actually provide only the free codecs by default, leaving the patented stuff to third party repos.

I think the only thing separating lightspark from widespread adoption in linux distros is the support for a plugin-based media framework like gstreamer. Directly linking to ffmpeg is in fact an obstacle due to its murky software patent situation. With gstreamer, or any other plugin framework, distros could actually provide only the free codecs by default, leaving the patented stuff to third party repos.

at least 95% of the users dont't care about the patent situation, or code quality, or anything else, if the software just works most of the time. And since distributions like Ubuntu ship ffmpeg including patent-encumbered codecs, there should not be any reason to ship lightspark as well.

The two things separating lightsprak from widespread adoption are support for the most "important" Flash applets, read: video sites and 2D games, and support for more platforms.